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Reapplying Thermal Paste to GTX280

Little_Crow

Little_Crow

Little_Crow

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3 Oct 2007
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My GTX280 bit the dust, and since BFG are no longer I oven baked it.

This definitely seems to have breathed life back into it, but the temperatures go through the roof.
I initially thought it was the old Thermal Goo i had, so bought a cleaning kit and some MX4 and reapplied it, this has helped a little, but temperatures still hit 105 very quickly and the fan ramps up even at the title screen of a game.

My concern is that the screws were an absolute sod to remove and that I just can't retighten them enough to make good contact between the GPU and heatsink. Plus, the screws are sprung which I assume is to prevent overtightening.

Any further advice anyone can provide?
It can still keep up on all the games I play so i really just want to eke the last ebbs of life I can out of this card without spending a great deal of money.
I'm not averse to getting a new card, but I'd like to put that at least until the full range of top end nVidia and AMD cards are out and reviewed.
 
Take off the cooler and check for the contact area, if it's not good reattach the heatsink, if the contact is good the problem is something else.
 
hi there i suffered the same fate last week with my bfg gtc280 oc......i took it apart and cleaned it up, reapplied some artic silver and still had the same problem, temps getting up to 105 degrees very quick, so my bruv had a look and recleaned the heatsink and gpu, and this time only put a small amount of artic silver on.......and so far temps havent gone above 88 degrees, worth a try as i nearly spent a few hundred £££ on a new card.........so only put on a small amount of paste......
 
terminator2k2 said:
hi there i suffered the same fate last week with my bfg gtc280 oc......i took it apart and cleaned it up, reapplied some artic silver and still had the same problem, temps getting up to 105 degrees very quick, so my bruv had a look and recleaned the heatsink and gpu, and this time only put a small amount of artic silver on.......and so far temps havent gone above 88 degrees, worth a try as i nearly spent a few hundred £££ on a new card.........so only put on a small amount of paste......
Click to expand...

An interesting point, how did you apply the paste? a small rice grain blob in the middle and squish it with the heat sink, or spread over the GPU?

I didn't think I had applied all that much, but the Heatsink was extremely well stuck to the GPU had to lever it off.

Let me know what you did and I'll try the same, thanks Terminator and Dutch Guy, much appreciated
 
clean with isopropyl alcohol, i'd then use a rice size blob, maybe slightly more. then spread it with a micro fibre cloth/or anything clean before putting the (cleaned) heatsink back on. do not lift the heatsink off once down. the temps on my 260 don't pass 55c tops furmark :D I used mx2 though.

too thick paste, bad contact, loose heatsink, trapped air -> can all lead to temps going through the roof. cleaning both surfaces beforehand is of utmost importance.
 
i put some in the middle and spread it across the gpu, it didnt look much but was obviously too much and it stuck the gpu to the heatsink, took a while to get it back off.......possibly around 1mm thick.....

2nd time i just put put a small amount in the middle then refitted the heatsink, and its still fine now, been playing black ops, medal of honour no problems...max it gets to now is 88 degrees, and i was always one that thought u could never put to much paste on........this has changed my opinion........i would say around half the size of a garden pea (the little ones lol)..... in the middle then put the heatsink on and let the heatsink spread it out...
 
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It didn't go well last night, 3 goes at it with various methods and temperatures are still ramping up (With a clean of the gpu and heatsink each time). I'm not entirely convinced it's me as I've done a few CPU's in my time, none of which have gone as badly as this.

The last attempt, I had the nVidia logo just covered so you couldn't see it and had high hopes but still it failed. When I took the HSF off there was practically no goo on the heatsink, only around the edges where the GPU would have made contact.

This is what is nagging me that I may just not be screwing the HSF on tight enough, but can't see how I can tighten the screws any further.

I'm going to give terminators 2nd method a shot tonight, and hope for the best.

Thanks for all your suggestions.
 
do a union jack of paste on the core, its what ek recommended in my fullcover block instructions. seems to work well. I think GPUs need more paste than cpus as mounting pressures and machining tolerances generally seem lower in this domain
 
gah!
It crawled it's way up to 80 degrees at which point the temperatures just rocketed to over 100 degrees

I'm pretty much losing hope on recovering this card, unless anyone believes that an aftermarket cooler would help? I'm dubious about shelling out money on a cooler, as I've already had to bake it to resuscitate it once.
It may be time (soon) to bite the dust and buy a new card, but it seems mad to buy with the impending 6970\6990 and 570\595's.
 
A sensor error did occur to me, all I can say is the card is very hot to the touch when I remove it from the case.
The fan does ramp up with the temperatures, particularly at 80 degrees when the fan seriously takes off.
 
Little_Crow said:
The fan does ramp up with the temperatures, particularly at 80 degrees when the fan seriously takes off.
Click to expand...
That is normal behavior, my GTX280 does the same anything over 80C makes the fan go crazy until it settles at 84C

So that would point to bad contact rather than a sensor error.

Maybe look for normal nuts that fit instead of the springy ones so that you tighten them better?
 
I'll have a look in my screw pot, but doubt I've got any that will come close, I think I'm going to take the plunge and get an aftermarket cooler, probably the gelid from ocuk.

I've checked a few reviews, and it seems like it does pretty well on the volcano that is the 480, so should have no problem with my 280, provided there isn't another fault yet to rear it's ugly head.

£35 Isn't a massive amount to spend if I can eke 6 months more out of my 280, if it doesn't work then someone on MM can get an aftermarket cooler on the cheap and my 280 goes in the bin.
 
Tell us how you got on when you tried the new cooler and if it doesn't work maybe you can use the new cooler on a new GPU you buy?
 
sorry for OOT, but it's similar...I want to buy aftermarket cooler for my GTX280, any good video/tutorial how to remove stock cooler and apply new one?
 
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